Website Personalisation: Best Practices For A Personalised customer experience

What is Website Personalisation?

Creating a website without personalisation is like serving a routine meal to a room full of hungry guests. While it might satisfy some, it's unlikely to impress or satisfy everyone.

In the age of digital marketing, providing a personalised customer experience has become a critical tool for businesses to enhance customer satisfaction and drive sales. Website personalisation is the process of tailoring the content, design, and functionality of a website to suit the unique preferences and behaviours of individual visitors.

Moreover, by leveraging data analytics and machine learning algorithms, website personalisation can help businesses deliver highly targeted and relevant content to their customers, resulting in increased engagement and conversions.

As we look towards the future, the potential for website personalisation is immense. Advances in platforms through AI  will enable businesses to gather even more detailed insights into customer behaviour and preferences, allowing for even more precise personalisation. 

The future of website personalisation is bright, and businesses that embrace this trend will have a distinct advantage over their competitors.

The Benefits of Personalisation

Recent studies have shown that 80% of consumers are more likely to do business with a company that offers a personalised customer experience, while 90% find personalisation appealing.

Not only that, personalised experiences have been found to increase conversion rates by up to 70% and drive customer loyalty by 80%. With such impressive statistics, it's no surprise that website personalisation has quickly become a top priority for businesses across all industries.

Personalisation is a powerful tool that can offer numerous benefits to businesses and customers alike. Here are some of the key benefits of personalisation:

1. Enhanced Customer Experience:

Personalisation allows businesses to tailor their products, services, and marketing efforts to meet the specific needs and preferences of individual customers, resulting in a more engaging and satisfying experience.

2. Increased Engagement:

Personalised content and recommendations are more likely to capture customers' attention and keep them engaged, leading to higher conversion rates and increased loyalty.

3. Improved Customer Loyalty:

Personalisation can help build stronger relationships between businesses and their customers by showing that the business values and understands their preferences and needs, leading to increased customer loyalty.

4. Higher Customer Lifetime Value:

Personalisation can help businesses identify and target high-value customers and offer them personalised incentives and rewards, resulting in increased customer lifetime value.

5. Data-Driven Insights:

Personalisation allows businesses to gather valuable data on customer preferences and behaviours, which can be used to improve products and services, optimise marketing efforts, and drive innovation.

Importance of Personalisation in the Finance sector

According to a survey by Janrain, 74% of consumers get frustrated with websites when content appears that has nothing to do with their interests.

Hence, with the increasing adoption of digital channels for financial transactions, customers expect personalised experiences that meet their unique needs and preferences. 

Personalisation can help financial institutions create a competitive edge by delivering highly targeted and relevant content and services, increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty. In the finance sector, the potential for personalisation is immense, with opportunities to create customised investment portfolios, personalised financial planning, and even personalised credit scores. 

As such, businesses that invest in personalisation in the finance sector are likely to see significant benefits in terms of customer satisfaction, engagement, and revenue, while also staying ahead of the competition.

5 Best Practices For A Personalised customer experience

1. Create a map of your audience’s journey to your website

To effectively personalise your website, it's essential to understand your audience's journey and behaviour. Begin by mapping out your audience's journey from the first touchpoint to the final conversion. Consider the different channels your audience is using to reach your website and the actions they take along the way. This step will help you identify the key touchpoints where you can begin personalising the experience for each visitor.

2. Decide what you want to personalise and when

Once you have mapped out your audience's journey, it's time to decide what to personalise and when. Consider the different elements of your website, such as content, images, and calls to action, and determine which elements would benefit from personalisation. For example, you may want to personalise the homepage based on the visitor's location or personalise product recommendations based on their browsing history. It's also essential to consider when to personalise the experience. For example, should you personalise on the first visit or wait until the visitor has interacted with your website multiple times?

3. Profile your most valuable visitors and create personalisation scenarios for them

Not all visitors are equal, and it's essential to focus your personalisation efforts on your most valuable visitors. Use data analytics to identify your high-value visitors based on metrics such as purchase history, engagement, and website behaviour. Then, create personalisation scenarios that are tailored specifically to these visitors. For example, you may want to offer a personalised discount code to a high-value visitor who has abandoned their shopping cart.

4. Educate your team on the importance of personalisation and how to do it right

Personalisation requires a team effort, and it's important to ensure that everyone in your organisation understands the importance of personalisation and how to do it right. Provide training and resources on personalisation best practices, and encourage collaboration between departments to ensure that the personalisation strategy is aligned with business goals.

5. Don’t over-personalise too soon

While personalisation can be a powerful tool, it's important to use it responsibly. Don't be overly aggressive or creepy in your personalisation efforts, as this can turn visitors off and damage your brand's reputation. Moreover, avoid over-personalising too soon in the relationship with a visitor. Instead, start with simple personalisation efforts and gradually build up to more advanced personalisation scenarios as the visitor becomes more familiar with your brand.

Takeaway

Implementing website personalization can be a game-changer for businesses, as it allows them to connect with their customers on a deeper level, creating a more engaging and memorable personalised customer experience. Research has shown that effective personalization can increase conversion rates by up to 30% approx.

However, it's important to note that personalization should be used with caution. Going too far too soon can come across as invasive or creepy, and may even drive visitors away. Therefore, it's important to strike the right balance and not over-personalize too soon in the relationship with a visitor.

In conclusion, website personalization is a powerful tool that can greatly enhance the customer experience and drive conversions. By following the steps outlined above and taking a strategic approach to personalization, businesses can create a tailored and engaging experience for their visitors, resulting in increased customer loyalty, satisfaction, and sales.